This invention relates to ceiling systems of the type wherein a plurality of spaced, elongated stringers cooperatively carry an array of horizontally elongated ceiling panels. More particularly, it is directed to devices for securing a panel to a stringer, as well as to ceiling systems including such devices.
One important application of the present invention, to which detailed reference will be made herein for purposes of illustration, is in suspended ceilings. A typical conventional subceiling or suspended ceiling is constituted of an array of ceiling panels spaced some distance below the true structural ceiling of a room. Commonly, the panels of the subceiling are supported by a plurality of stringers, which are elongated rigid members extending above the panels in spaced relation to each other and are themselves individually suspended from the structural ceiling by wires or rods located at intervals along their lengths. In an illustrative form of suspended ceiling, the ceiling panels are elongated metal or like resiliently deformable elements of upwardly opening C-shaped cross section, disposed in closely spaced parallel array with their downwardly-facing major surfaces in a common horizontal plane; the stringers supporting them are downwardly-opening horizontally elongated metal channel members each having a plurality of paired downwardly projecting seats on which the panels are snap-fitted. These stringers extend transversely of the panels, being individually suspended at a common elevation in widely spaced parallel relation to each other, so that each stringer supports a large number of the panels and each panel is supported by a plurality of the stringers.
Usually, in a conventional suspended ceiling of this type, as viewed in plan projection (i.e. as seen from vertically above or below, in projection on a horizontal plane), the long dimensions of the panels are perpendicular to the long dimensions of the stringers. For aesthetic or other reasons, however, it is sometimes desired to provide a nonparallel arrangement of ceiling panels, e.g. a converging array or a diamond or other geometric pattern. When the panels are not parallel to each other, at least some of them are necessarily oblique rather than perpendicular to the stringers as viewed in plan projection. This oblique orientation of the panels relative to the stringers precludes mounting of the panels on the conventional stringer seats, because the stringer seats are only able to hold panels oriented at one predetermined angle (viz. 90.degree.) to the stringers. Expedients heretofore proposed for mounting ceiling panels in nonparallel arrangements have, in general, been limited as to the range of angles at which the panels can be oriented relative to the supporting stringers, with resultant inconvenience and restrictions on the type of panel arrangements that can be produced.